Eagle Scout project raises U.S. flag at park

Paul Claycomb uses a crane to lower a 35-foot flagpole into place Saturday at Plymouth Township Park. Eagle Scout candidate Chase Every plans to coordinate the construction of a small brick-paver plaza around the flagpole.(Photo11: Every family photo)

Workers from Rocket Enterprise of Warren installed a 35-foot flagpole Saturday at the park’s ballfields, work that was paid for through a fundraiser coordinated by the Plymouth Township teenager, a Boy Scout with Troop 1537, based at Plymouth First United Methodist Church.

Chase was present for the installation and helped out where he could. Since the new flag has no light trained on it — a must for overnight display, according to flag etiquette — he’s been raising it himself in the mornings and returning to the park every evening to lower it. Plans are to eventually have a light there focused on the flag, Chase said.

Chase is raising money for the project — the goal is $5,000 — by selling engraved bricks for the small plaza he plans to build around the flagpole with the help of fellow Scouts.

“It’s going smoother than I thought it would,” Chase said Tuesday evening.

“At first it was kind of actually scary,” he added, explaining that in the early days of the fundraiser, only a few bricks were sold. “As we got more public with it, it just exponentially grew.”

Sales have been averaging a brick a day; the goal now, Chase said, is to sell 30 more bricks.

Bricks, available in two sizes, are being sold through Monday, June 20. They start at $50 each; the larger-sized bricks can even be engraved with a company logo.

Following the purchase of the bricks, Chase plans to coordinate the construction of the plaza: excavation and the laying of the bricks, which will be done by fellow Scouts. Eagle Scout candidates are supposed to plan and supervise the hands-on work involved in their project as a way of showing leadership skills.

The plaza will be built some time after the Fourth of July, when the park will host the township’s annual Good Old-Fashioned July 4 Picnic. Chase said he doesn’t want park traffic to damage the newly laid bricks.

Chase is a sophomore at Plymouth High School and a left fielder for the PHS Wildcats. He said he’s played ball at Township Park for years, starting when he was a 4-year-old T-ball player. He often wondered, he said, why the park didn’t have a U.S. flag, as did some of the other parks at which he played ball.

Chase has been in scouting since he was in the first grade. The Eagle Scout rank is the highest in the Boy Scouts and planning, supervising and completing a community project is one of the key requirements of achieving that rank.